To Russia with Love

We're taking the students away this week for the annual Mid Year Conference with a bunch of other students from other universities across NSW. Really looking forward to it (the freezing cold not so much!). It's on resurrection, and Philip Jensen is giving the talks. NICE. Will be out of Sydney for world youth day - phew!

But, sadly... I will miss making a contribution to the Crime and Punishment book group i'm currently in! So a few brief comments..

Really liked this week's reading - was hooked. Quite a bit of suspense, really.
Do people think Raz would've actually taken advantage of the young girl, had the policeman not come along? And what was the point of that encounter?

Also that dream! Quite disturbing, lots of interesting themes of sacrifice. What do you think it's meant to represent? Obviously on the surface, it's about the manner in which he'll kill his future victim. But do you think it represents something deeper than that, like oppression towards the Russian underclass? I'm not sure, but it seems quite significant.

In terms of the murder, it's weird how mixed his motives are. He flirts with the utilitarian idea that by murdering a pawn broker he's preventing other people being ripped off by killing her, but then there's also the basic motive of wanting money to avoid having to be so dependent on his family. I assume the latter half of the book explores these motives more deeply.

Also Looking forward to a depiction of Alyona Ivanovna rivalling Ben's previous character sketches!